


Won Over

by Woofemus



Category: Love Live! School Idol Project
Genre: F/F
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-24
Updated: 2015-12-24
Packaged: 2018-05-08 20:51:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,501
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5512907
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Woofemus/pseuds/Woofemus
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Giving a gift shouldn't really be this hard. Except it is, but that's mostly Nozomi's fault.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Won Over

**Author's Note:**

> done for the [llsifsecretsanta](http://llsifsecretsanta.tumblr.com/) exchange for nicoumii

“Nozomi, I need your help,” was the first thing Nico said as soon as she entered the club room. Nozomi dropped the card she was holding, slowly turning to look up at her friend with a look of utter shock. If Nico needed her help, she would grumble and growl it out through her teeth first.

This... this was serious, Nozomi realized. Maybe it had something to do with her family? Nozomi sat up straighter, her expression turning serious. “What is it?” she asked, carefully keeping the worry out of her voice.

Nico looked at her, about to answer before she frowned, suddenly realizing she was about to ask _Nozomi_ for help. But now, Nozomi was looking at her both curiously and oddly serious instead of teasing her for some reason. Nico could do this. “I need to get a present for someone,” she said carefully.

“Okay,” Nozomi nodded, putting her elbows on the table and leaning forward to rest her head on top of her hands. She smiled reassuringly. “Generic presents or something specifically for someone?”

Nico grimaced, trying to think of what to say. “It'll feel more special if you get something with that person in mind,” Nozomi pointed out helpfully. She flashed a grin at the other girl. “Nico-ni doesn't do things half way, does she--”

“Ugh!” and Nico knew she had lost when Nozomi said it _that_ way. “F-fine! Just... just promise me you won't tell anyone about this.”

Nozomi raised an eyebrow, suddenly _very_ interested. This _definitely_ wasn't about her family anymore. She smiled charmingly, trying to coax her friend. “My lips are sealed.”

“That's hard to believe,” Nico still couldn't help but retort. Nozomi only continued to smile, not fazed at all. Nico took a deep breath, glancing at Nozomi before looking away, her cheeks turning a slight tinge of pink. Her mouth moved.

Nozomi blinked. “Excuse me? I didn't hear that.” Nico scowled at her before speaking again, just the tiniest bit louder. Nozomi put a hand on her chin. “Maki-chan?” she guessed, if only to force Nico to talk.

Nico slammed the table, staring straight at Nozomi with a serious look. They stared at each other, Nico's eyes intimidating and Nozomi trying very hard to keep her mischievousness at bay.

“It's... I need something for,” and her voice dropped to a whisper again, coughing slightly. Despite everything though, Nozomi heard her final word loud and clear as if Nico had shouted it instead, so completely shocked she was to hear it.

“Umi,” Nozomi whispered back in sheer disbelief. Nico slowly nodded, scratching the back of her head with a scowl. She looked over at Nozomi, and there was a silent plea in those eyes. Ah, Nozomi thought, now she knew exactly what was going on. This was serious, she thought. She would have to treat it as such. After all, Umi was a very serious girl herself.

Nozomi impressively managed to keep her gaze still for a moment before snorting in laughter. Before long, she was chortling and even as Nico slapped the back of her head, it did nothing to quell the laughter.

* * *

“No, it's not like that!” Nico angrily insisted again. “Stop trying to hear what you want to hear and _listen_ to me!”

“Uh huh, Nicocchi,” Nozomi said, still grinning widely. At this point, it was all too easy to rile Nico up.

“J-just shut up and listen to me! She's helping us come up with all these lyrics all the time! She, uh, deserves something extra for all her hard work,” Nico explained again with a grumble, scowling at Nozomi. Really, that was all there was to it. Why was Nozomi making this a bigger deal than it really was? At the same time, it was _Nozomi_ and Nico wasn't sure why she was even surprised in the first place.

“She has it hard, dealing with Honoka and Kotori, all the time. Just a little something, to show she's still appreciated,” Nico continued. Nozomi only nodded again.

“Uh huh,” she said once more, clearly unconvinced. Her smile was still full of teasing and mischief, as if she knew something Nico didn't. It was an annoying trait of hers. Nico puffed out herself instead, putting a hand on her chest.

“I mean, she should be proud that she's getting a gift from such a cute senior as me!”

Nozomi let out a snort. Before Nico could retort anything, she quickly spoke. “Just wondering then, do you know what she likes?”

“O-of course I do!” Nico held up a finger. “She likes...”

Nozomi waited patiently, tapping her finger against the table. Nico remained standing there, finger held up in the air.

“Archery!” she shouted, very proud of her answer.

Nozomi pushed her lips together, struggling to keep from laughing at how hopeless everything suddenly seemed. “Let's... get you some help,” she only said, taking out her phone and sending out some quick messages.

Nico was beginning to regret her decision to ask for help.

* * *

“So I understand Kotori, but why is Rin here?” Nico couldn't help but ask, eyeing the hyperactive girl with disdain.

“Nico-chan, how mean!” Rin pouted at her. “Rin spends more time with her than you! We're part of lily white, remember?” She wrapped an arm next to Nozomi who immediately responded with the same. In the next second, they struck a pose together. “Rin-chan and Nozomi-chan of lily white! Here to make Umi-chan's life more interesting than the days before, nya!” Rin announced, her voice strangely deep for whatever reason.

“You mean making her that much closer to murdering you all one day,” Nico muttered. “Next to Honoka anyway.”

Kotori clapped for them, grinning. “Thanks for taking such good care of Umi-chan for us!”

“Of course,” Nozomi replied with a bow, her voice also strangely deep for whatever reason. “We love to spoil Umi-chan whenever we can.”

“H-hey! Aren't we here to help me?!” Nico shouted at them, turning their attention back to her, not that she wanted it for any longer than necessary. “Just tell me what she likes and I can go get something!”

“I could, but... it has to feel special, doesn't it?” Kotori pointed out, looking thoughtful. “I could tell you what Umi-chan likes but it doesn't mean much if you just go out and pick up something that just looks like what she likes.”

Nico crossed her arms, huffing slightly. Kotori did have a point. But it made everything seem needlessly complicated now. All she wanted to do was get a gift for Umi, why was that suddenly the hardest thing in the world?!

“Nicocchi, you must master the finesse of gift-picking,” Nozomi said sagely, as if she was suddenly enlightened. “You need to put some more careful thought into what you give others. Umi-chan may look tough on the outside, but she has the heart of a young maiden! You need to tread carefully to not break her heart.”

Nico blankly stared at her. “Nozomi, what the _hell_ are you even talking about--”

“Nico-chan!” Rin shouted suddenly, interrupting Nico and throwing an arm around her. “When I go out and pick gifts, I take a loooong time. Rin looks at each gift carefully and when Rin gets a funny feeling in her stomach, that's how she knows it's the _perfect_ gift.” She smiled as she continued. “And then, Rin gets so happy about the gift that she treats herself out to ramen after, for a job well done, nya!”

“... I'm pretty sure you just took so long that you got hungry,” Nico said slowly, looking at Rin with a mixture of amusement and disgust. “Gah! You guys aren't helping me at all! I just, I just need something to go on! C'mon!”

“What sort of gift are you trying to give?” Kotori asked. “Something practical? Cute?” She started to smile dreamily. “A lot of clothes would look good on Umi-chan but she doesn't want to wear them.”

“That's true,” Nico found herself agreeing before she realized. “She has such a great body for it! Why does she have to be so embarrassed about it,” Nico muttered under her breath.

“Right?!” The look in Kotori's became devious. “Maybe you can buy something cute for her to wear, you might have a better chance because she's used to me asking her all the time. But if it was from you...”

Nico nodded, getting swept up in Kotori's enthusiasm. “Yeah! I could do that! Alright! I got it!” She turned on her heels, making for the door. Before she could leave though, a hand on the back of her shirt pulled her back. Nozomi's amused face came into sight. “Hey! What gives?!”

“Nicocchi, are you shopping for Umi-chan, or for yourself?” Nozomi asked, smiling wryly at her. Nico widened her eyes, realizing exactly what she was about to do. She slapped her forehead, groaning.

“I don't know what feels worse, that I was about to go out and do that or getting that pointed out by you.”

Nozomi patted her head, quickly taking it back when Nico scowled at her. “I'll take that as a compliment,” she answered with a cheeky grin.

* * *

Several days later, Nico stood outside the club room, hand on the knob. Of all the possible help she had received, only Honoka, who she went to as a last minute resort, was the most useful, telling her straight without Nico needing to jump through several hoops first. All she could hope for was her threat of silencing Honoka had worked and Umi would be none the wiser about everything once Nico was done.

It was supposed to be simple enough: turn the knob and walk inside like she owned the place, say a few lines to show how lucky Umi was to get a gift from her, and then become the best senior ever. Easy!

Her phone buzzed. She reached into her bag, hand brushing against Umi's gift, to grab her phone. There was a message from Nozomi.

“ _nicocchi it's been fifteen minutes can you stop being useless and go inside”_

“ _shut up!!!! don't bother me!!!!!”_

“ _good luck! win her over ;DDDD”_

“ _I'm telling you it's not like that!!!!!!”_

“ _and stop spying on me don’t you have student council work to do I can hear Eli yelling for you”_

Even though her phone buzzed again, Nico stuffed her phone back into her bag without checking. If she continued the conversation, she'd get no where except for allowing Nozomi to make fun of her even more. She put her hand back on the knob, nodding determinedly to herself. She took a deep breath. Another one, for good luck. A third one, just to be sure. A fourth one, just because. And another one, because it was feeling good stalling.

“Ugh, the faster I get this done, the faster I don't have to think about this,” she muttered. Without hesitating for another second, she opened the door.

Umi looked up from where she sat at the table, a pen and notebook in her hands. It was either their lyrics or her homework, Nico couldn't tell. But that wasn't important right now. She made her way to the front of Umi, from across the table.

“Nico, good afternoon,” Umi greeted.

“Uh, yeah, hi,” Nico greeted back, muttering. Umi raised an eyebrow at her odd behavior. Nico took a deep breath before reaching into her bag. Once she touched the present, put inside a small box and wrapped with gift paper, she turned to Umi with a smile. “As your cute and completely reliable senior, I got something for you!” Now that she had said the words, there was no going back. She took out the gift, wrapped in bright pink wrapping paper, and put it on the table.

Umi was already skeptical. She eyed the gift before looking back up at her, suspicious. “... you're not trying to bribe me to get you into the center, are you?”

“What?!” Nico was offended, scoffing. “Of course not!” But she took the present back slightly, tiny smirk on her face. “But, now that you've brought it up, maybe you can just--”

“Absolutely not,” Umi immediately said, frowning disapprovingly. “You know we already decided who the next center is going to be!” Nico only sighed, shaking her head.

“I thought so. But whatever, it wasn't even about that anyway, so here!” She put the present in front of Umi again. “Think of it as something for all your hard work. You can accept that, right?”

“... really?” Umi reached out, about to put her hand on it before looking at her again to make sure, the suspicious look still in her eye. Nico rolled her eyes, reaching forward.

“Look, if you don't want it--”

“I'm sorry, I'll take it.” Umi finally placed her hand down and slid the box over to her side of the table. “I didn't mean it like that.” She smiled apologetically. “Honoka tries to bribe her way out of things sometimes so it just makes me naturally suspicious. I'm sorry for that. And thank you very much. I will accept, if you insist.”

Nico settled back down in her chair, crossing her arms with a huff. “Y-yeah, I get it.” The way Umi seemed so overly formal and stiff made it hard for her to deal with her sometimes. She watched Umi pick up the box, shake it slightly, and then put it off to the side, returning to her notebook. Nico sprang forward, eyes wide. “H-huh?! You're not gonna open it?”

“... was I supposed to?” Umi looked up at her before glancing over at the present.

“Well, yeah! At least let me know what you think!”

“... a-ah, well...” Umi coughed politely, taking the present back. “U-um, well, alright then...”

Nico sat back in her chair, trying her hardest to remain nonchalant, listening to the sounds of paper being ripped. Soon, Umi would see the present that the great Nico-ni had picked out, and there would be nothing but praise and compliments on how well-thought out her gift was. This was what Umi liked, after all. Getting advice from her two childhood friends had to count for _something._

Umi looked inside the box. She let out a gasp as she reached inside, taking out the contents.

“This... this is all so _cute_ ,” Umi spoke in a low voice, sounding more horrified than pleased.

“Well, _of course_ _,”_ Nico pointed out flatly. “You’re an idol! An _idol!_ You'll never be as cute as me but even when we're not performing, we still have to act the part.”

“But... b-but...” Umi laid everything out on the table. “This... t-this... seems a little... excessive...”

“If you ask me, this is too _less,_ ” Nico muttered, looking down at the items she had picked out. “It's not even that bad! At least they're usable!”

“Y-yes, but...” Umi gestured to the items, wordlessly pleading with her. Nico didn't see what the problem was. She picked out a simple gift: a stationary set that had its own cute pen and eraser, pencil bag, notebook, nearly everything ready! If Nico wanted to be honest, this was more of a practical gift than something like accessories.

“But?” Nico said, crossing her arms. Umi gave her another helpless look before she pointed at everything again.

“They... they... they all have _bunnies_ on them,” Umi said, whispering the word bunnies as if it was the most atrocious taboo in the whole world.

“I thought you liked bunnies!”

“I do! But not... but...”

“I don't know what you're complaining about!” Nico frowned at her, feeling just more than a little upset. “I tried to get something that was both practical and cute, and this was the best thing! Stuff for you to write your lyrics in while looking cute! You'd feel better and maybe get some more inspiration when trying to write some good lyrics with this!”

Umi slowly looked at her. “That's... that's why you got me this?”

Nico waved her hand. “Sort of. I just wanted to show how, u-uh, appreciated you are. For coming up with lyrics and choreography and... everything else.” She glanced away, feeling strangely embarrassed as she admitted everything.

“Oh... so you can be dependable sometimes,” Umi said with a quiet laugh. Nico narrowed her eyes.

“Hey, what's that supposed to mean!?”

“To tell you the truth, I never knew... what to make of you. You're... quite different than anyone I've ever met.” Umi's cheeks turned pink at the admission, quietly embarrassed.

Nico didn't know what to say. Was... was that a compliment? From anyone else, it might have sounded like an insult, but from Umi, she wasn't sure. Ah, dammit, why was Umi so hard to deal with in comparison to her other juniors?

“O-oh!” Umi waved her hands, smiling apologetically. “I didn't mean anything bad by it. It's... I just don't really know how to act around you sometimes,” she confessed.

Nico sat back on her seat, mulling over Umi's words. “To tell you the truth, I feel the same,” she returned as well. “You're so serious, just like Maki. It's easy to tease her though, but doing that to _you_ feels like kicking a bunny.”

“... ah.” Umi looked torn between whether she wanted to be confused or offended at the comparison. “I... appreciate the sentiment,” she said after a moment of consideration.

“I just meant something like, you're always so _serious_ all the time. It's not really a bad thing, we need someone like you to kick us into gear when we're fooling around.” Nico didn't know why she felt the need to explain herself further but there was just something about the way Umi was actually listening intently to her that made her continue. “I, uh, I-I guess... I j-just wanted to get you s-something, from me to you, to show you that I appreciate the things you do. I mean, you gotta learn to loosen up too but...” she shrugged. “With you needing to chase after Honoka all the time, I can understand.”

Umi stared at her, completely taken aback. Nico glanced away, awkwardly scratching the back of her neck. Admitting all those things, it felt even more embarrassing than she thought. Somehow though, it didn't feel too bad. At least she wasn't saying them to someone like _Nozomi._ There was something about Umi that made Nico feel like she would be taken seriously.

“I... I didn't think you... felt that way,” Umi said quietly, her face also red with embarrassment at the compliments. She raised a hand to her mouth, chuckling underneath it. “It's... certainly very strange to hear of all of this, I have to tell you.”

“I could have told you that,” Nico muttered, wondering why she was feeling so oddly... sentimental today.

“I... think it adds a different side to you,” Umi answered, her voice earnest. “To be honest, I was really surprised when you started talking to me. We don't get a lot of chances to speak to each other, just like this. I thought you might have wanted something, but...” Umi looked down at the gifts Nico had given her, softly running her fingers down the bunnies in appreciation. She looked back up, smiling gently. “Thank you, Nico.”

Nico stared at her, stunned. She had never seen Umi smile like that before, unless it was the rare moments where she was watching her childhood friends, an unconscious smile on her face. It felt like it was a secret between all three of them. Nico couldn't help but think it was that same smile here, being shown to her. It... it was... weird, and Nico was desperately trying to figure out why she felt bothered.

Umi kept her smile on before she awkwardly coughed into her hand. “B-but I... I-I, um, I'll... use these when I'm at home. I hope you don't mind.”

“Y-yeah, that's... that's fine. As long as you use them,” Nico answered slowly, wondering why she felt so strange all of a sudden. She wanted Umi to smile at her again, show her that--

“Sorry we're late!” Honoka burst into the club room, shouting. Umi yelped in surprise and quickly began to shove everything on the table into her bag. “Oh, it's just Umi-chan and Nico-chan in here?”

“Honoka-chan! You shouldn't have interrupted!” Kotori was at the doorway, sighing.

“A-ah?! I was interrupting something?!” Honoka looked back at them, sheepish. “Sorry guys.”

“N-no! Stop saying such misleading things like that!” Umi shouted, shaking her head.

Nico drowned them out, only shooting them a scowl before returning to her thoughts. It would be several more weeks before she finally figured out why Umi's smile bothered her so much, when she happened to catch a rare glimpse of that same expression once more.

When Umi smiled like that, even Nico had to admit she was cuter than anything else. She wanted to see more of it.

It was then that Nico realized that she had been the one won over instead.


End file.
